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Friday, January 27, 2012

Phun Cards is a new feature that we are going to try running here at Phungo. There have been numerous series that have been started here and never quite finished or returned to at all. Like everyone here, I have a bit of ADHD and bunches of ideas dance around my brain and don't make it to the page or only do in a half-ass way.

Well today I want to introduce one of those ideas.....and see where it goes.

I am hoping that Phun Cards can be our version of the Cardboard Appreciation err I mean CA feature. Typically single cards that are interesting for one reason or another. I would also like to bring Hall of Fame profile back and make it part of Phun Cards.

Enough blabbing - Here is the first ever Phun Card

2000 Topps Stadium Club #148 Pat Burrell

yeah yeah I know, gotta get the scanner hooked up. not a priority - I have all this house stuff to do and all these important twitter feeds to follow. And it's a shame because this is a pretty decent looking action shot from way back at the turn of the century. Stadium Club has always had banging photography - in 2008 I think it may have come at the expense of Topps Flagship product which had horrid photos.

This card features a young Pat Burrell at the other end of his career which appears to be coming to an end. We also have a pretty decent guest star on the card in the Person of Andruw Jones. Amazingly Jones had already been in the league 4 years and will likely bookend Burrell's career by playing for the Yankees this season.

Phungo Challenge

It is a Friday and you read this far because you really don't feel like working so here is your Phungo Phriday Challenge ....

I have always wanted to do this - Ok all you Baseball-Reference junkies - you know where we are going here: What day was this game played?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

This is not a new 2012 Phungo card. This Prince Fielder card is from last years set.

Not sure if Prince will stick at 1b after his move to the AL. Perhaps he will DH for the Tigers.

2011 Phungo #30 Prince Fielder

I kind of like this one, it isn't an action shot or anything like that. But anytime I can get a decent pix of a all-star player I am happy.

Glad to have Prince out of the NL, but always liked him - may have to add the Tigers to my Orioles Todo list for this summer.

etc

If you want to see a fantastic video of a pack rip of Phungo Cards check out this posting by dayf over at Cardboard Junkie. I absolutely love it and believe all Phungo Cards should be opened in such fashion.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

On Janary 23rd the Year of the Dragon will commence. Today we are going to check out some famous Baseball Dragons:

1940 Ron Santo1964 Barry Larkin

We start out with this years Hall of Fame inductees Ron Santo and Barry Larkin, Pretty cool Larkin card - Cooperstown Collection issued 2 decades prior to his actual election. Like Santo, Willie Stargell is also a 1940 Dragon and a Hall of Famer.

1976 Pat Burrell

It is starting to appear as if Pat the Bat will not hook up with a team for 2012. He had a mixed career in Philadelphia, but won a World Championship in the end and then went on to win another championship with the Giants in 2010. Pretty nice finish. Form Phil Randy Wolf is also a Dragon from the 1976 birth year.

1952 Fred Lynn1988 Clayton Kershaw

Our next pair of Dragons features young Phenoms. Well Fred Lynn was a young Phenom when he won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP award in the same year (1975). Clayton Kershaw is of course the reigning Cy Young award winner. Fellow Dodger Dee Gordon is also a class of 1988 Dragon.

1916 Enos Slaughter1928 Billy Martin

These two are both Fiery Dragons. I picked up the 57 Topps Slaughter card out of a 3 for a dollar bin a few years back - of course that is because the back is marred to the point of being non-existent. Billy Martin's longtime teammate Whitey Ford was also born in 1928.

1880 Christy Mathewson1904 Chuck Klein

We finish with a couple of retro cards of Hall of Famers who played in the first half of the previous century. The Mathewson card is from the Great Ones insert series of 2011 Gypsy Queen. Chuck Klein comes from a 1970s Fleer issue.

1964 Dragons
I just wanted to note that the 64 Dragons are quite the PED class and include Canseco, Palmiero, and Bonds.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The card #1 honor in this years Phungo set once again goes to Harry Kalas.

I believe this is at least the 5th time Kalas has appeared or made an impression on a Phungo card. He was part of the oriiginal 2009 set then in 2010 Card #1 was dedicated to Kalas in a Memorium card. That same year we produced a Mike Schmidt card that was the home to the Harry Kalas shrine following the broadcasters death. The 2011 Raul Ibanez card also contained an homage to Kalas as the Harry Kalas memorial banner at Citizen's Bank Ballpark looms in the background.

2012 Phungo #1 Harry Kalas

It is hard to make out but there is a black and white photo of Kalas in the background of the photo above - it is above the right shoulder of the Kalas statue. I like the look - it appears as if Kalas the statue is thinking about Kalas the Man. It isn't as clear as I would like on the card, and I may experiment with retaking a photo at a similar angle in an attempt to get a better shot in the future.

Phillies fans will miss Harry Kalas for at least a generation, perhaps forever with the amount of audio and video we have at our dispoal. It is nice that the Fans and the Phillies have worked together to memorialize Kalas, and it adds a bit of enjoyment to my life persnally to be able to create a card dedicated to the teams beloved broadcaster.

There are 30+ cards missing from this list so there could be some additions to the list. There are at least four prominent players from the 2008 World Champs teams that are missing from the checker - Understandably there is late FA signing Jimmy Rollins. The most noted player to get booted to Series 2 is Chase Utley. We will also need to wait on both Shane Victorino and Joe Blanton. Cliff Lee is the biggest deferment on the current staff. I did not see FA defectee Ryan Madson on the list, nor are FAs Raul Ibanez and Brad Lidge.

At least 2 pitchers that are expected to be in the Phils spring training camp are checked on their 2011 Teams #89 Dontrelle Willis(Reds) and #267 Joel Pieniro (Angels). Jim Thome is not listed.

Other interesting things I noticed is that Neither Albert Pujols nor AL MVP and Cy Young Winner Justin Verlander are Checklisted. As I noted above 35 cards are unlisted, these are likely for special cards and perhaps award winners such as Verlander.

- Mickey Mantle returns to his familiar #7 spot in the order, The #44 spot which was once issued to Hank Aaron is occupied by Edwind Jackson (listed as a Cardinal, but I think he moved on)

- #27 John Buck will be the first Miami Marlins Topps Card ever issued - it will be interesting to see how those cards are handled.

- #30 Derek Jeter is a pretty low level Hero Number for the Yankees star and is #40 a hero number - it was issued to Tom Milone of the Nationals - who the hell is that guy.

- Dee Gordon and Craig Kimbrel are each listed for two spots. Did either of them set records of some sort last season, maybe Kimbrel.

- #66 is Nyjer Morgan - no Tony Plush listed.

- #72 is there really a player named Rex Brothers - sounds like a place where you buy a suit or get a lawyer.

- #107 Luke Scott listed as an Oriole - he has taken his guns to Tampa Bay

- #136 Casey McGehee last card as a Brewer.

- #267 World Series Hero and Phillie Killer David Freese

- #299-#301 are all Rangers - 3 in a row (Moreland/Hamilton/Alexi Ogando)

-#305 Potentially Chipper Jones final Topps Card while Active - although he will likely show up in Ser 2 or update.

Hero Numbers 100 200 and 300 were handed out to Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, and Josh Hamilton respectively. I appreciate Bautista getting some love here - easy to forget he has hit close to a hundred dingers over the past two season leading the AL in both 2010 and 2011. Not as keen on troubled drunken Miguel Cabrera getting one.

It is also interesting to note that the latest steroid rep Ryan Braun gets #1 while the man he beat out for the MVP award Matt Kemp got the last card #330.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Today Team Phungo proudly announces the release of the fourth edition of Phungo Cards.

I am sort of amazed that this is the fourth set. 2012 Phungo is by far the smallest set, and it is also the least current as far as the Photography goes. We only made it out to a handful of games this past years so the amount of recent product to draw from was severely diminished. For this reason you will see lots of photos from past seasons. This also means that the quality of shots is down. Some cards that got cut from earliar sets have made it into 2012 by default.

On the upside, for this years set, Pixlr was used rather than Paint to design the cards. This made it significantly easier to make a more modern looking card:

2012 Phungo #34 Roy Halladay

Thanks to the team over at Goose Joak for introducing me to Pixlr, which made a lot of the elements of the 2012 Phungo card design possible. Even simple things like the rounded border aren't very easy to do in the confines of paint. Placing the text over the photo is something made much easier by pixlr. I have place a slightly white background so the name is more readable. The Card Number and Date of the game are in the lower left. Phungo Signature in the lower right.

This is from a Game we saw in June where we were fortunate enough to get very good seats - unfortunately I was seated next to a very annoying woman, she was much to old to get away with being so juvenile.

This is the 2nd consecutive year I have opened the 2012 Phungo Cards postings covering Roy Halladay. If I would have been more on the ball, we would be talking about Hunter Pence today, but I never got a good picture of Pence so he has been left out of the 2012 set. Halladay didn't get Card #1 in the set like he did a year ago - He has instead been given the #34 which he wears on the field.

The 2012 Phungo set is the smallest so far consisting of 38 Base cards. The Jackie Robinson Retired Number Continuity Series returns for 2012 with three new cards including one of Jackie Robinson's familiar 42 from a different venue and two new Hall of Fame player cards.

Over the next week or two you will get to see several postings with additional cards from the 2012 set.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Ryan Madson is leaving the only organization he has been associated with for his entire professional career. Madson will be going to the Cincinnati Reds as a Free Agent - He will open the season as the Reds closer and likely hope that he can use 2012 as a springboard to a big payout contract for 2013 (as if $8.5 MM isn't enough)

2010 Phungo #46 Ryan Madson

Madson was mixed as the Phils interim closer over the last few campaigns, yet I have a great degree of fondness for Madson.

Obviously, I am a fan of any member of the 08 World Championship team - but it was the Madson games that I was fortunate enough to see that really made me a fan. During the 08 championship runa and the 09 World Series I was was able to go to 5 playoff games. The Phils won all 5 and Madson participated in all 5 - I have seen the Phils on the Winning end of two world series games Madson pitched in both and saved one (he did blow a hold in game 5 of the 08 World Series but the Phils came back). And way back in 2006 when Madson was still a starter we got to seem him shutout the Orioles in an interleague contest.

In 2004 when Madson first came up he was a big unknown form the Phils minor league system. He wasn't a huge prospect (9th round pick) that we had heard about for years. But he pitched very well and would become a critical pitcher in there bullpen, but....

Late in 04 Madson got one of his two freak injuries. He injured his pitching hand when he ran into a wall chasing a ball in BP. Then in 2010 Madson broke his toe kicking a chair in the locker room following a blown save in San Francisco. So Madson is known as a bit of an idiot around Phungo HQ as well.

The above Phungo Card is from the 2010 set, stay awake, I heard a rumour that the 2012 cards are lurking....

Tier One as the name states is a Tiered product with several parallels. The break was of the 15 team variety where you get a team you choose plus one at random. My random squad was the Padres - Tony Gwynn is about as well as I could do personally for a Padres base card as he is one of my favorite players. The Pence Base card may be my first of him as a Phil. The Hamels was my best pull from the Tier One portion of the break.

2011 A&G NNO Roy Halladay

Nachos Grande had won a box of 2011 A&G and he through cards from that box that he didn't need for his PC into the break. Fortunately one of those cards was arguably the best card in the box. A No Numbered Roy Halladay Mini. This is only my 2nd nno mini. I have a Cole Hamels from a different break I was involved in a few years back.

Chris also gave each participant a team set of 2011 Topps Lineage, so in addition to the above cards, I also picked up the Phils and Padres Topps Lineage cards.

Right now over at Nachos Grande a group break featuring 5 turn of the century products. Phils from that era aren't not nearly as exciting as the current crew - maybe pick up a couple of cool Scott Rolen cards.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year! - good last wk of the yr for Team Phungo - hope the beginning of 2012 finds everyone well.

Now I have some catching up to do.

Way back in the beginning of November Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping ran a different kind of a Box Break. Well it wasn't really a break. It was a draft - of Cards. TC had a lot of nice cards that were in midlevel products that Team Phungo really doesn't get to pick up. The Draft had 15 rounds I think and guaranteed an Auto and a Relic. Here is Much of the Team Phungo draw:

click to enlarge

Lots of Chomey stuff here - I went after Phils and former Phils, HoF and some favorite players. The Relic is an All-Star GU card of Placido Polanco in the bottom row. I am holding the Auto (might be subject of a future Phungo STS!)

Some of the chrome and parallels of stars in the lot include Chase Utley, Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels masterpieces, There is a Chrome Flashback of Dom Brown near the top right